An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts touched down safely on the Kazakhstan steppe on Thursday, completing a 196-day mission that began with the first launch under lockdown conditions.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed around 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan at 0254 GMT, footage broadcast by the Russian space agency Roscosmos showed.

Brazil's health minister said Tuesday the country would add the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine against Covid-19 to its national immunization program, despite a political and diplomatic row over whether to use it.

The International Space Station is now working normally with no danger to its occupants after the crew managed to resolve a series of technical issues overnight, Russia's space agency said Tuesday.

With competition among Earth's telecoms providers as fierce as ever, equipment maker Nokia announced its expansion into a new market on Monday, winning a deal to install the first cellular network on the Moon. 

The coronavirus remains active on human skin for nine hours, Japanese researchers have found, in a discovery they said showed the need for frequent hand washing to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the US won the Nobel Physics Prize on Tuesday for their research into black holes, the Nobel jury said.

Faces are more important for humans than dogs, according to a brain activity study on how the two species see each other published by a team of Hungarian and Mexican researchers Monday.

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday it will launch an unmanned rover to the moon by 2024 as it seeks to expand its space sector.

The atmosphere of Venus contains traces of phosphine gas -- which on Earth can be attributed to living organisms -- scientists said on Monday, in a fresh insight into conditions on our nearest planetary neighbour.  

Egypt has invited Elon Musk to visit its famed pyramids after the SpaceX and Tesla founder posted a satirical tweet stating that clearly extra-terrestrials had built the giant monuments.